Goin' Out West

Well, as of today, we've left Illinois, driven through two states (Iowa and South Dakota are their names, but from the interstate it's nothing but 1,000 miles of corn, stupid stupid corn). We made it to Helena, where the downtown has free Wi-Fi, so I can now share a few photos.


The set of Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me! Before we left Chicago, we enjoyed a live taping of that terrific show. Hilarious stuff. You can listen if you'd like. Please enjoy.

We also had a great time seeing Chris, Carrie, and Rodrigo, but I can't get those pictures until I can get better cell phone reception, so that will have to wait.


Once we went back and finished packing (a little stressful; Yancy got a bit fussy; but it all worked out in the end. Thanks Mom, Dorothy, Fran, Dave, and Merrica! Oh, and especially Emily!!)--anyway, after we were packed, we drove to Omaha, to see Mike Battershell, who I hadn't seen in ten years.

Mike, Alicia, Yancy, Emily

Those ten years have been great to Mike, who has a lovely and funny fiance, a beautiful four-story house, and an apparently cool scene in Omaha. The t-shirts we're wearing (and the other one I wore later) are his, part of his involvement with the sort of punk/skinhead group Anti Racist Omaha. Anyway, he had beds for us all, a bar downstairs: awesome. Best first day of a road trip ever.

Next came South Dakota:


Emily with a cute soda machine



Merrica's caption (from facebook): "Who's taller now bitch! Oh, and some heads in the background"



Hey, isn't this the room where that lady shot Cary Grant in North by Northwest? Hope so, because otherwise this is just a picture of a cafeteria . . .

Anyway, if you're curious about the drive itself (stupid corn!), here's a map of our route:

View Larger Map

Until next time. Be well, reader.